[Wikipedia-l] Stan's evolutionary concept

Wed Jan 5 15:35:21 UTC 2005

On Jan 5, 2005, at 8:53 AM, Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales wrote:

> J.F. de Wolff wrote:
>> Articles develop Darwinistically. They emerge from primordial soup
>> (substubs, anon newbie edits) and evolve as more people add material.
>
> The essence of my talk in Berlin was to argue against this view of how
> wikipedia operates.  Obviously, there is something to it if we
> streeeeeeetch the "Darwinistic" metaphor to the breaking point.  But
> in the main, I think this analogy is one which misleads us into
> incorrect conclusions.
>
> This is not to say that any of your particularly conclusions is wrong.
> I am just saying that I think that the "Darwinistic" model is more of
> a hindrance than a help in understanding how to improve things.
>
> --Jimbo
>
>

The math doesn't work for the Darwinian metaphor. But there is a 
Hamiltonian way of representing the selection process at work on wiki.

Short form, we, the wikipedians, aren't the environment, we are the 
organism.